Taming the Wild Cougar…how did I get the idea?

Years and years and years ago, I read a romance where a cop had taken a nurse hostage because he had seen her give first aid training to a bunch of Boy Scouts, and he was wounded and on the run. The “good” guys are out to take him down, and he’s got to solicit her help to prove his innocence.

So I wanted to have a hero who is undercover, wounded by another cougar, and seeking medical supplies in a clinic that is closed for the night. Except the doctor is napping in her office before she takes off on her camping trip. He didn’t mean to take her hostage. But he doesn’t have much choice. She tries to get away, to warn the sheriff–but inevitably–they are thrown into a situation they’re stuck with until they can find a way out. The story is completely different from the one I read so many years ago.

But that kernel of an idea stuck with me over all those years, and Taming the Wild Cougar was born. Every story is different. Sometimes I read a news report, or watch a movie, or think–what if? And a story is born.

It’s not easy. I may make it look easy. But it isn’t. I’m winding down on Bounty Hunter Gets Her Wolf. How to end it? I don’t know. How to make it more conflictive? I don’t know. Sexier? I don’t know. More wolfish as in more wolf scenes? I don’t know. lol

But I’ll get there. I just need to finish the book, then go back in and make it have more of all the elements that will ensure it is so much better. To make it fun. Believable. A book readers don’t want to put down, and then want the next one.

Cougar shifter, Dr. Kate Parker, is planning her annual camping vacation alone this year. She runs into trouble before she even starts her trip in the form of one wounded, hot cougar undercover cop—or so he says. He’s not going along with just her tender loving care because he came into town as a cougar, and he needs her help to get him back to where he can take up the search to look for an arms dealer, who just happens to be a cougar too.
Leyton Hill slipped into the unlocked, darkened clinic, figuring his luck had just changed. Except he doesn’t plan for the good doctor to be napping in her office. Taking him on her vacation wasn’t in the plan, and taking her hostage, hadn’t been either, but now she’s stuck with him until he can get back to his mission and the chase at hand. It appears the roles have reversed and who’s holding whom hostage now?

But then Dr. Kate Parker saw what he was looking for. A photo on her desk of her and her cat, Sheba, in her arms. Another with Sheba catching her favorite pink ball mid-air.

She knew in an instant, that’s why he wanted to come to her office. To see if she had a family portrait. He was good. If he was an undercover cop, he had to be good at his job.

“I’ll show you a picture of my husband. Let me have the phone.”

He obliged, but stayed right next to her as she pulled up her photo gallery, his hot piney-woods scent drifting to her. Trying to ignore his close proximity, which was damn hard to do as he breathed down her neck, she quickly searched through the pictures until she came to one and clicked on it. She hoped he’d believe that the deputy sheriff who owned the cabins on Lake Buchanan, Chase Buchanan, was her husband.

“Here’s Chase. My husband.” Best of all, she’d given him a big hug for having taken her to the firing range and teaching her how to fire her 9 mm and his wife had shot the picture of them.

As long as he didn’t see the pictures of Chase and his wife, Shannon, and their adorable babies, Kate thought it looked convincing.

“Nice,” the man said, studying the photo way too long. “May I?” He waited for her to hand the phone to him, but she tried to turn it off. He took it from her and flipped through the pictures. “And this is his sister and her babies?”

“Uh-yeah.”

He flipped through several more photos. “No pictures of her husband. He must be a really close brother.”

“He is.”

He glanced at the walls in her office. Her medical credentials. More pictures of Sheba. Her Black Belt First Degree certificate in ju jitsu. Great.

Then he focused on her desk, and specifically her large desk pad calendar and studied it. “Vacation from now until Monday, returning two weeks. Rockies.” He shifted his gaze to her. “You and who else?”

“My husband, Chase, of course.”

“What happened to your three kids?”

She twisted her mouth in annoyance.

He cast her a small smile. “Why don’t we go to your house?”

“Sure. You can explain to my husband why you’re running around naked, wounded, and forcing me to take you places.”

“I could. Let’s go.”

Quickly, she tried to toss her lab coat onto her chair, just in case anyone might notice the blood and she always hung up her lab coat. But Mr. Undercover Cop looked at it and smiled at her, not in an amused way. More sardonically, like he knew just what she was up to. “Why don’t we take it with you so you can wash it out? Blood can leave permanent stains.”

He caught her glancing at her desk drawer. “Got something in there you need to take with you on your trip?” He still had her phone in his hand, but dropped the trash bag and bunched gown on top of her desk to free his other hand. He reached past her, brushing against her, and pulled the drawer open.

When he grabbed for the gun in her drawer, she saw her chance at escape and made a dash for the door.

***

So you see, you never know what’s going to happen in the cougar-run town of Yuma Town. Never.

Cougars ears back, supposed to mean aggression, annoyance

I get ideas for things all the time for just everything. Do you ever see something and think what a neat idea that is, and want to do something in your yard, or house, or writing, or photograph something similar?

But no matter what you do, it will be yours. Your voice, your way. And who knows but you might inspire others.

Oh, and Taming the Wild Cougar’s audiobook should be out soon. Just need the narrator to fix four issues and then it goes in for final proofing!

lol, I’m rereading from the beginning, looking for loose ends. I think my loose ends could strangle me. But the good thing is, they give me some new avenues to write about. 🙂 So maybe I’ll come up with all the right things to say. 🙂